This just seems overly grumpy. If you don't want to participate or can't afford it, turn off your lights and ignore it. The kids out in costumes are having fun and being given candy by those who wish to participate. The mixed religious history isn't on kids minds.

The kids are cute, but there have been years that I haven't wanted to deal with it and some years we haven't been able to leave work before trick or treating was over. There isn't a Halloween enforcement group forcing someone to hand out candy.

This just seems overly grumpy. If you don't want to participate or can't afford it, turn off your lights and ignore it.

I’ll agree with that, me. We live in a subdivision in a rural area (mostly horse farms out here). The property owner’s association puts on hayrides for the kids who are trick or treating, a early one for the younger set and one after dark fro the older kids. We also get a few “independents” from out of the subdivision, etc. If you wants to participate, you turns on your outside lights. If you don’t, leaf them dark.

I usually buys 4 or 3 big bags of candy for the kids and hides them in my garage/workshop beer fridge until the 31st to keep DW from eating them.;-)

My mother used to complain about kids being driven to her condo area from a nearby street. It wasn't as though she had a ton of kids coming, but she did complain about them being driven there until I pointed out that the nearby street in question was a twisty, windy, hilly road without street lights, and maybe perhaps possibly parents felt it was unsafe for their kids to be going back and forth in the dark.

I'm fine with young children but I don't give out treats to teen aged galoots.

Oh, I don't mind, especially if they're in costume/makeup, polite, and most especially if they're taking around younger sibs. Crassly speaking, the neighborhood teens who receive your kindness are more likely to treat you and your property with respect.

=alstro, sad because I'm ill and can't attend a neighbor's Halloween party tonight. I was going to wear the sari I bought on a whim when I went to India--if I could follow the instructions on how to wrap & tuck it. As a backup, my kimono. Maybe next year!

I've begun to compromise. We live in a fairly nice neighborhood near a more disadvantaged area. We get carloads of kids and there are very few from our block and our own kids are now grown. A lot of the "kids" at the door were getting older and older.

I didn't want to not do it at all, so I've begun buying just a few bags of candy, or my favorite offering - a couple of cases of mini microwave popcorn*, and when it's gone, the lights go off.

Since the little ones go out early, I know they'll get a treat, and the bigger kids get something if they get to the house by about 8pm.

After 8pm, it's time to watch Young Frankenstein (our annual tradition!)

Oh I have so much ammo for that. Video of him having baths, video of him riding the belt at the grocery store, pictures of him wearing a Tupperware bowl on his head, him holding his My Little Pony, him passed out on the floor by his trains in a diaper holding a lollipop, etc. This kid is growing up in the most documented generation.

Oh I have so much ammo for that. Video of him having baths, video of him riding the belt at the grocery store, pictures of him wearing a Tupperware bowl on his head, him holding his My Little Pony, him passed out on the floor by his trains in a diaper holding a lollipop, etc. This kid is growing up in the most documented generation.

I live in a "drop-off" neighborhood. We have a lot of cul-de-sacs, sidewalks and streetlights, low traffic and the houses are plentiful. We also have hundreds of kids in the neighborhood, and then there are hundreds more dropped off, because they live in rual areas or apartment complexes. It's a madhouse on Halloween night.

Even though I have no problem with the trick or treaters, I can't help but resent that we (the sub-division) is footing the candy bill for the drop-off kids. There are plenty of church "Trunk-or-Treat" events, and the malls have trick or treating at the stores, which is supposed to be for the rural and condo-kids.

But, still, they are kids and they love the holiday, so I buy a few bags of candy and when it's gone, I turn out the lights and ignore the door. I buy the 'gross' candy though. I get Twizzlers and Tootsie Rolls, because I can resist them. I can't resist the 3 Musteteers :)

Like Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, Halloween has become a manufactured and contrived holiday, brought to you by the candy industry and Madison Avenue ad agencies.

I find costumes get less commercialized as kids (and adults) get a little older and become more interested in making their own costumes. Then much of the fun comes from the crafting of one's costume, especially the more elaborate ones. Halloween's just the reason for it, and the time to show it off. Plus people get to live vicariously through what ever character they're portraying. And back in my 20's when people would dress up in costume on Halloween and go bar-hopping, it was an excuse to talk to someone because of their costume.

With how little people have face-to-face contact with neighbors or strangers, is it really bad to have 1 holiday where much of the neighborhood goes out and visits a bit with each other?